Air Education and Training Command leader Gen. William Looney has ordered a standdown for all T-38C Talon training, following the second fatal accident in two weeks involving the primary trainer for initial fighter-bomber pilot training. In a May 1 statement,...

Engineers at the Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center on the grounds of Arnold AFB, Tenn., began running Pratt & Whitney’s F100 fighter engine April 29 on the synthetic fuel blend that the service wants its entire fleet capable of...

The F-35 stealth fighter could be vulnerable to emerging types of Russian radar technology. So reports Australia’s The Age newspaper in a May 1 report that cites Carlo Kopp, an analyst with Air Power Australia, a defense think tank. Kopps...

Hellfire missiles fired from an MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle took out a mortar position and a number of “hostile individuals” April 11 in Basra, Iraq, Air Forces Central announced May 1. In another incident, a Predator launched a Hellfire April 26 in Sadr City in northeastern Baghdad that destroyed an automobile loaded with weapons, along with some insurgents, AFCENT said in a separate release May 1. In the case of the Basra strike, the Predator tracked a group of suspicious individuals for several hours until they hastily erected a mortar in the middle of the street and began firing at friendly troops. The MQ-1 operators then fired the Hellfires. In the Sadr City case, the Predator was conducting a reconnaissance patrol when it located a group of individuals loading weapons into the trunk of a car. It followed the car and struck once the MQ-1 operators determined that there were no innocent bystanders around. April was a record month for Predator strikes in Iraq, with 11 in total, USA Today reported April 29. The previous high was six in a month.

The first Space Based Infrared System early warning satellite, dubbed GEO-1, is now ready for environmental testing after engineers successfully completed a comprehensive phase of integrated baseline tests, Lockheed Martin, the satellite’s manufacturer, announced April 30. “I am proud of...

Airmen assigned to the police technical advisory team at Bagram AB, Afghanistan, provided training on community policing and conducting field interviews April 22 to about one dozen members of the Afghan National Police who came together in the Parwan Provincial...

DARPA is looking to fly the two expendable hypersonic test vehicles being built under its Falcon program next year. Flight reported April 30 that HTV-2a will fly in May 2009 and HTV-2b will follow in October, citing DARPA’s Steven Walker,...

Maj. Erik Bruce, SMSgt. Gregory Williams, and MSgt. Clarence Barry Jr., three members of the 28th Security Forces Squadron assigned to Ellsworth AFB, S.D., received Bronze Stars April 16 during a ceremony at the base for their actions while deployed...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaApril 29, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 18 10 28 3,329 CAS/Armed Recon 24 52 76 10,024 Airlift 121 121 14,784 Air refueling 48 48 4,637 Total 273 32,774...